“There are two capital ships,” Marcie said, pointing at the center of the enemy formation. “We break into two groups and take out their big ships, or we split into six and go after the two big ones and the next four largest. If we are successful with all six, that leaves a bunch of tin cans, destroyers, I think you called them.”
“What can two people do on a ship that’s bigger than the Axe?”
“You take me and you take Ankh. We can get into the system once we’re on board, but we need you to get us safely there. That’s not our shtick,” Ted said from the back of the room.
“It is not,” the Crenellian added. Terry couldn’t see him behind all the bodies in the way.
“I’m not a fan of giving up two suits. We need the combat power, but I know that you’re a force multiplier. Sounds like two teams and we go after their big boys,” Terry replied.
Ted shouldered his way to the edge of the conference table. “Why not just tow extra people? We have shipsuits. How long do you think we’ll be outside? Come on, TH. I don’t see you wasting more than a few seconds. Calculating the trajectory, distance, time to open the airlock… Five minutes. We’ll have plenty of time to spare.”
Char, Kae, Marcie, and Kim nodded. The others in the room looked optimistic.
“Six groups of four and Bundin. Team leaders are me, Marcie, Kae, Kim, Christina, and Timmons. Smedley, follow along and calculate our release points. I’ll take this one because I think it’s their flagship. I'll take Ted with me. Marcie, you have the other capital ship and take Ankh with you.” Terry pointed to the ships as he walked across the blockade. “Kim, Kae, Christina, and Timmons. Kim, you take Bundin, Joseph, Petricia, and Auburn. Ramses with me. Cory, you stay behind.”
“She can go with me,” Kae offered, but Terry shook his head. Cory didn’t get angry. She hung her head.
“You’re going to need me out there,” she said matter-of-factly.
“I know we will, but we won’t know which of the six ships will need you the most. You’re better off here where you can react to the greatest need.”
“You don’t want me out there,” she said softly.
Terry replied just as softly. “No, I don’t. We’ve done some sketchy shit that we should not have walked away from, but this is probably the most dangerous. Not only are we hurling our bodies into the void of space, we’re going after ships that have the capability to render our suits and our nanos inert. It only takes a couple minutes to die in space, no matter how you slice it. I’ve risked all of us for far too long. I won’t do that anymore.”
“Maybe it’s not your choice,” Marcie interjected, standing up straight, nearly as tall at Terry. “We’re all volunteers, remember?”
“When it comes to combat, you know I don’t fuck around,” Terry retorted, flashing a snarl as he looked around the room, making eye contact with everyone who looked to him. “You stay here!”
“No,” Cory replied. “I need to come. I’ll join Kae’s team.”
Terry clenched his fist, not because he wanted to hit someone, but because he was losing the argument. He wanted her to come because she saved lives, pure and simple. She made sure people could get back into the fight. And once in a fight, she could hold her own. He rolled his head around his shoulders.
Char chuckled.
“What?” Terry demanded.
“You’re so funny. You always want to change something, for the right reasons, and the wrong ones, too. Some decisions are out of your hands. Looks like we’re taking a full load, twelve in powered, armored suits, twelve in shipsuits, and Bundin with his stalk-strapped jet pack.”
Terry’s jaw worked as he wanted to say something, but there wasn’t anything that came to mind that didn’t sound snarky or asinine. He settled on a different approach.
“Fuckberts won’t know what hit them. Ted! How in the hell do we get on board their ship without them knowing about it?”
“If I knew that, we could simply send a drone,” Ted replied with an eye-roll. “That’s why I need to go along, but I can tell you that Felicity isn’t going to be happy with you, Colonel Terry Henry Walton!”
The others turned away, but Terry could still hear their snickers. “You wouldn’t.”
“She’s going to be mad at you, not me.”
“Fine. Ramses, you stay within arm’s reach of Cory at all times and keep her safe.”
“I always do, Colonel,” Ramses replied from where he stood at Cory’s side.
“Suit up, people. Meet on the hangar deck in fifteen minutes. And, Ted, we’re under full opsec, operational security, no calls leave the ship until the operation is over,” Terry declared.
Ted looked at Terry as if he didn’t comprehend.
“You can’t call Felicity. No comms outside the ship,” Terry reiterated.
“But I have to call her,” Ted countered.
“Sorry, Ted. No calls.”
“But I have to call her.”
“SUIT UP!” Terry shouted, and the people started leaving the conference room. Ted stood dumbfounded. Dokken barked furiously and raced down the corridor.
Terry, Char, and Micky remained behind. “I wish I knew how that little bastard was getting into my quarters.”
“Somebody iced down the corridor that I use.”
“Someone hid all the chocolate ice cream,” Char added. The two men looked at her. She shook her head and held her hands up. “It’s not right.”
“Can you deliver us on target? I’d hate to float past those ships and disappear into the cosmos. The people we’ll be towing will have a limited air supply. I don’t want to kill our people because we couldn’t fly straight.” Terry gripped the captain’s shoulder as he bored into his eyes.
“We’ll launch you on target. What I can’t account for is if they move, which they are sure to do when we come racing in on our high-speed pass, but they returned to their starting positions last time, so that’s where we’ll deliver you. If necessary, you wait for them to come to you.”
“That’s a big ‘if,’ Micky.”
“It’s the best I can do for you. No promises besides that. If you need anything else from us, like a diversion, just let us know.”
“Maybe a few streams of plasma to keep the ships where we want them,” Terry suggested.
“I don’t want to throw plasma past you while you’re flying through space with nothing but a suit between you and incineration.”
“Get ready to launch the drop ships to recover us. Or blast the aliens into non-existence if you haven’t heard from us in twelve hours.”
“Twelve? That’s an awfully long time.”
“Those are big ships.” Terry finally let go of Micky’s shoulder. “Stay frosty, Skipper.”
Terry and Char walked out together. They could hear Dokken continue to bark, far in the distance. It remained unspoken that he couldn’t come. Terry hoped he didn’t have to look the German Shepherd in the face and tell him point blank that he couldn’t come along.
“I like that dog,” Terry said as they headed for the stairwell.
“Me, too,” Char admitted.
***
Kaeden had brought his team directly to the armory where the mech suits were stored. Kae walked past each one, studying it before continuing on. The newest four, delivered by the Keeg Station production facility the past week, still smelled like they were fresh off the showroom floor. Flawless exteriors glistened with the room’s lights.
Kaeden looked fondly at his suit. Creased, charred, scratched, and seared. It had undergone system repairs, but the cosmetics remained untouched. Salty, Terry had called it as a badge of honor. Some of the others, too.
Cantor’s suit. He hadn’t made it off Poddern alive. Fleeter had lost a leg. Even though that had been repaired by the nanocytes, she wasn’t ready to deploy again. She was still getting regular treatments in the Pod Doc, but Kae wasn’t sure what for.
He didn’t press her on it. She had climbed into a super-tank and killed it, barely
escaping after leaving her leg and a lake of blood behind.
He couldn’t blame her for not being in a hurry to dive back into the fray.
Kelly and Capples were adamant about going. Kae took stock of the suits and counted those who wanted to wear them.
Terry, Char, Timmons, Sue, Shonna, Merrit, Joseph, Petricia, Kae, Marcie, Kim, and Ramses. The weretigers, Christina, Auburn, Cory, Ted, Ankh, and six or maybe seven more. That was it. That was all they could take with them to subdue an alien fleet.
Kae sighed as he caressed his suit.
“A dozen mechs capable of mass levels of destruction. If we had these back on Earth, we could have destroyed entire cities. But that’s not our thing. Have them and not need them, like Fleeter, climbing out of hers to fight the battle within, the real battle. Any moron can hose down an area with a railgun,” Kae told the empty suit.
“Any moron,” Kim said from behind her brother. “Who are you talking to?”
She looked around and held up her hands when she didn’t see anyone.
“No one.” Kae stood up straight and took a deep breath before turning to Kim. “I don’t have a good feeling about this.”
“Who does? We are getting launched through space with the hope that we can get on board alien ships. Then we get to fight all of them. How many do you think are on board that big bastard? Do you think they’re going to hand it over when they see us? Or maybe they’ll fight like hellspawn because there is no place to retreat?”
“It does look grim,” Kae conceded before smiling. “Isn’t that our thing?”
“What’s our thing?” Christina asked. She didn’t wait for an answer before continuing. “Which suit is mine?”
“Umm,” Kae stuttered.
She put her hands on her hips and tipped her head down to look at him.
“That one.” Kae pointed to the suit he had dedicated to Petricia. He decided in that moment that Joseph would carry her since she hadn’t trained in the mech simulator.
Kaeden didn’t want to put anyone out, but he had way too many people and far too few suits. Someone was going to be left out.
They were all good with that because she’d saved Aaron’s and Yanmei’s lives. One for all, all for one, or so the saying went. Kae had no doubts that she would do the same for anyone else in the Bad Company. Neither did anyone else.
“You’ll be carrying someone, as will we all.”
“I know,” Christina replied. She studied her suit for a moment, then turned to Kim and Kae. Her eyebrows knit as she frowned. “What are we going to find over there?”
“Selfishly? I want to find a door that opens and an atmosphere I can breathe, otherwise, I’m just going to blow the engines and get the hell out of there,” Kim replied.
Kae held up his hand, and Kim slapped it.
“I approve that plan,” Terry said loudly as he led the group that would jump into empty space from a moving starship.
Terry turned so he could face the group. Were, vampire, enhanced humans, a Podder, and a Crenellian.
“Listen up, people. You’ve all been briefed, but let me break it down to its simplest elements. We jump off the Axe, fly to our targets, and try to board, unnoticed if possible. If we can get aboard, we try to find the heart and soul of the ship, the computer. Pop your hacker devices onto them so Plato and Smedley can get to work. If you have to take some of the aliens out, do so. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, blow the engines and get out of there. Use an escape pod or just jump and use the mech’s jets to get you clear. I’m not so keen on taking prisoners, but if they surrender, zip tie them and move on.”
“What if they can’t be zip-tied?” Bundin asked, waving his tentacles.
“Then I guess we’re fucked. Or not. Do your best with what you have, but remember, our primary mission is to break the blockade. Any questions?” The group shook their heads. Ted raised his hand, but Terry ignored him. “It’s time to suit up and get to work.”
CHAPTER TEN
The War Axe raced toward the enemy blockade, but turned to demonstrate that it wasn’t attacking. It continued through a long arc as it approached the drop point for the Bad Company. The alien fleet started to move, but none of them brought their EMP weapon to bear.
“I don’t think this was one of my best ideas,” Terry mumbled. Twelve warriors in the powered, armored suits were magnetically attached to the rear of the sail, the section that stood above the War Axe’s superstructure. Each of the twelve held onto another person who was wearing only a shipsuit. One Podder used a tentacle to hold on to the ship while two people in suits were wedged against him, helping hold him in place.
Each of the twelve had a small box attached at their waists.
“You’ll drop off at intervals of two to three seconds, be ready,” Micky said through the helmet communications.
“Engage your stealth device,” Terry ordered. The group reached to the boxes and jabbed at the interface. It appeared as if nothing happened.
“Ted?” Terry wondered.
“You’re invisible to electronic systems. You can still be seen by the naked eye,” Ted replied dismissively.
“Trust the Force, Luke,” Terry intoned.
“Team One, ready. Go,” Smedley said, taking over the deployment because precision was critical. Two suited figures carrying two other bodies released their magnetic grapples and continued on a ballistic trajectory while the ship executed a long, lazy arc.
“Team Two, Go.”
Smedley deployed the six teams, one by one. Terry and Char were the last to release. As they floated away from the ship, they both looked back to see the War Axe accelerating toward the pinpoints of light that were the cargo ships waiting at the edge of the heliosphere.
The only sound they could hear was their own breathing. Terry started to tumble.
“Stop squirming!” he said as he tried to head-butt Ted’s bubble-head with his mech’s helmet, but since Ted’s was filled with air, it acted like a pillow, refusing to give TH his gratifying thump.
“Felicity is going to be pretty angry about this,” Ted retorted, his face turning red.
“Stop telling me that you’ll sic your wife on me. It’d be embarrassing for me to kick your ass in front of her.”
“Ted, think about how you’re going to crack the code to get through the airlock. The mission takes priority,” Char said calmly as she maintained a firm grip on Cordelia.
At the last minute, Terry had put Ramses with a different team. Ramses was upset, but if anyone would take care of Cory, it would be her parents. He relented when he found out that she was going with them. Ramses settled for getting carried by Kae.
“I expect that there won’t be any codes to access the airlock,” Ted admitted.
“No shit,” Terry sighed.
***
Timmons tightened his grip on Sue. She looked at him through wide eyes that darted from his face to the immensity of space. “Follow me,” Timmons ordered.
He touched his jets for less than a second as he forced his way off the ballistic trajectory. His target ship had moved, but it was still within a reachable arc, within the margin of error that Smedley had calculated for each team.
Shonna locked arms with Merrit as she tickled her jets to race after Timmons.
The werewolves bore down on the ship that Smedley had classified as a cruiser, the second largest in the alien fleet. Timmons checked his stealth pack to make sure it was still functioning. He wondered if Ted rigged the small green light. He had called it an idiot light when he briefed everyone on their use.
As long as the light was green, the suits were invisible to electronic discovery. Sue couldn’t see the ship. Shonna held Merrit backwards so they could both see where they were going.
Sue closed her eyes. Her shipsuit was a too-thin barrier between her and the dead of space. She tried to calm her breathing to use less air and extend the amount of time they were able to search for and breach an airlock.
Timmons c
ould sense his mate’s unease. He wanted to caress her blonde hair, but he couldn’t. He settled for focusing on getting aboard.
“We’re coming in kind of fast, don’t you think?” Shonna suggested. She was an engineer like Timmons and was critically studying the situation. According to her heads-up display, they were approaching at a speed of two hundred kilometers an hour.
“Oh shit,” Timmons muttered before inverting and hitting his jets, staying on them until he slowed. Sue almost slipped from his arms. The panic in her eyes told him everything he needed to know. He locked his arms around her, which was what they had agreed to as SOP, but his mind had drifted. He grimaced and mouthed, “Sorry.”
Her shock changed to anger. She glared at him through narrowed eyes until he looked at the approaching ship. He worked the jets until they slowed nearly to a stop. He didn’t touch down on the ship as Shonna stayed a body’s-length from him. He used the mech’s maneuverability to survey the length of the hull, avoiding anything that looked like a porthole.
“Where in the hell is the airlock on this fat bitch?” Timmons muttered.
***
Joseph slowed his approach well before they reached the ship. Bundin used his stalk-strapped jetpack to keep pace. He twisted around, looking at space as the mouth-flaps at the top of his stalk remained tightly closed. Kim and Auburn had inadvertently floated ahead. At that distance, Joseph couldn’t talk with them and could barely see them.
He waved at Bundin, pointed to Kim, and then motioned for him to follow. Joseph turned himself around and let his suit’s jets rocket him toward the others on his team. He had to turn and slow before crashing into Kim and Auburn, who had stopped and were studying the massive ship before them.
“A battleship,” she said to no one but herself. From the edge of the heliosphere, the ship had been nothing but a big target. Up close, it was an intimidating mass. One thousand feet from stem to stern. Although no weapons were visible, they knew it had to be armed with at least railguns to blast asteroids.
As were most ships designed for space flight only, the battleship wasn’t sleek. It was boxy with protrusions, seeming like a squatter’s paradise.
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